On an unusually cold and blustery March afternoon yesterday, a difficult early season schedule may have finally caught up to the No. 6 Boston University women’s lacrosse team, as it fell to No. 12 Dartmouth College in triple overtime, 9-8, at Jack Barry Turf at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Though the Terriers entered the game ranked sixth in the nation, the Big Green was the third team ranked in the top 20 BU has faced in its first five games of the season.
Still, BU coach Sue Murphy felt the Terriers should have come away with their fourth straight victory yesterday.
“I would say bluntly that we didn’t perform to our level of play. It’s a shame, really, because we had hoped that being home, [at least] across the river, that we’d be a little more fired up for this game,” Murphy said. “We went [to Dartmouth] last year and lost, and I know the seniors were up for this game, but I would definitely say that all over the field — draw controls, ground balls, possession, finishing, even our save percentage — it just wasn’t there today.
“We definitely did not play as a very good unit today,” Murphy said.
BU (3-2) and Dartmouth were tied, 7-7, after regulation and 8-8 after the first two overtime sessions before Dartmouth’s Amy Zimmer beat BU junior goalkeeper Brooke Barrett with 2:13 remaining in “sudden victory” overtime to give Dartmouth the upset. The game-winning goal was Zimmer’s third of the game.
Dartmouth, who entered the game at No. 12 despite playing only one game so far this season, looked evenly matched with BU throughout the contest as both teams traded goals and the lead.
The Terriers jumped out to an early 2-0 advantage after less than three minutes of play on goals by sophomore attacker Caroline Kelleher and senior defender Renee Vanderbrug.
Kelleher added another tally, and Dartmouth answered with a goal of its own.
BU looked to be in control early on with a 3-1 lead.
But the Big Green came storming back with three unanswered goals, taking the lead for the first time with 9:43 left in the first half, 4-3.
Senior midfielder Chrissy Lombard, reigning America East Player of the Week and the Terriers’ leading scorer this season with 15 goals, responded, converting a free position shot to knot the game at four.
The second half was more of the same, as neither squad held more than a one-goal edge.
The Terriers struck first in the second half on junior defender Gabby Juocys’ goal at close range at 24:59 to put BU up, 5-4, but Dartmouth came right back just over three minutes later to tie. The Big Green converted again at 11:11 to take a 6-5 lead, moments after Barrett deflected a head-on Dartmouth shot to the left of BU’s net.
Back-to-back goals by freshman attacker Polly Purcell and Juocys regained the lead for BU, 7-6, with 5:19 remaining in regulation, but Dartmouth’s Suzy Gibbons beat Barrett with just 2:21 left to send the game to extra time.
Lombard had a chance to win the game for BU on a free position shot with just two seconds left in regulation, but her attempt was deflected and bounced wide of the Dartmouth net. And she nearly won the game for the Terriers again with four seconds left in the second overtime, leaping in the air in front of the Big Green goal and firing a shot, only to have the ball land directly in the Dartmouth goalkeeper’s pocket.
“I think we had spark, but our spark was inconsistent,” Murphy said. “Dartmouth came here, and they were a very tough team. They came to win. I think it was the rule of New England here today — you saw some good, tough lacrosse today, obviously, going into sudden death overtime.”
Lombard’s attempt at the close of the second overtime proved to be BU’s last shot, as Dartmouth won the draw to start the “sudden victory” overtime and scored 47 seconds later to pull off the 9-8 upset.
The Terriers, who have had nine different players score this season, continued their balanced attack, as Juocys, Kelleher and Lombard all tallied two goals each, while Purcell added a goal and three assists.
BU will most likely fall in the national polls as a result, but Murphy said the loss won’t be a huge setback for the Terriers.
“This won’t hurt us that much. Dartmouth has a very good strength of schedule, they will play [some of] the top six or eight teams in the last four games of their schedule. This might move us down a little bit, but it really won’t affect us NCAA [ranking]-wise,” Murphy said. “It was a good game, it’s just unfortunate that we didn’t play at our level for 60 minutes or this would have been a different outcome.”
BU will take on Drexel University Friday in its America East opener at Boston College’s Alumni Field. Continued renovations of Nickerson Field have forced the Terriers to play its first five “home” games at alternate sites, MIT, Boston College and Harvard University.
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